How I keep my mental health in check

02/07/2021 Jessica Bryson

Hi everyone,

This weeks blog is quite a personal one for me. I had never suffered from mental health issues before but a couple of years ago it hits me like a sack of shit. I had not long return to work after maternity leave and all was going well and I was glad to back and then one morning wham, I felt sick and panicky and just had to get up and go home. That morning I called my line manager and explained what had happen, luckily he was great and I also work for company who is very supportive on all things mental health. Anxiety is no joke and it took me a long time to get back on an even keel and along the way I learned how to manage my anxiety better. In this blog I wanted to take you through the things I do to keep my Anxiety and Mental Health in check.

Headspace

The first thing that I started doing was meditation using the Headspace app. I did this daily and found that it was a way of calming my mind which was constantly racing with all sort of irrational thoughts. There are courses that you can take in the app for certain things such as anxiety or sleep. I used and still do today the daily meditation which is 10min. You can do longer than 10 min but I found that this was a good length of time for me and worked well. Now you do need to subscribe to get all of the functionality of the app but I think that the money spent is more than worth it.

Podcasts/Reading

I don’t know about you but when I don’t understand what’s happen I like to find out and see what other people have experienced. This led me to listen to Podcasts and Audiobooks whilst I was out walking my dog Derek. This really did help me to understand that this was not something that was just happening to me and that there were things that I could do to help. Some of the Podcast that I listened to were

HappyPlace – Fearne Cotton
Happy Mum Happy Birthday – Giovanna Fletcher
Mad World – Bryony Gordon

Below are some of books that I really enjoyed and helped me:

How to be Human – Ruby Wax
A mindfulness guide for the Frazzled – Ruby Wax
Mad Girl – Bryony Gordon
Eat, Drink, Run – Bryony Gordon

Exercise (Walking Derek)

I personally think that this is such a key thing for helping with mental health. Getting out in the fresh air with Derek was great for me as it gave me some much needed headspace. At the start I would use the time to listen audiobooks or a Podcast but more recently I have not taken my headphones and just listened to the quiet of the countryside. I can honestly say that there is not a lunchtime walk that I have come back from that I have not felt better for taking.

Journalling

This is something that I did at the start but tailed off, but recently i decided that I wanted to make this a regular thing again. I tend to have a lot of things going round my head so just been able to get them down really helps me. It clears my head at the end of the day and I find that this really helps me with sleep for instance. I am going to contradict myself a bit now I actually use an app for my journalling (DayOne) which kind of goes against reducing my screen time. The reason for this is that I recently purchased the iPad Pro with the magic keyboard which I love and means that I can journal anywhere easily. Its all stored in the cloud so no there is no need to have multiple notebooks/journals dotted about the house.

Reducing Screen time

This is something that I have talked about in other blog posts and something that I am still battling with. I don’t always feel like I need a break but even if its just a small break I can tell that it was actually needed. I was finding I was spending more time on social media than I should have or even needed to be. I think this is one thing that can really contribute to anxiety as you are constantly checking if and who has liked a post. I think there are pro’s and con’s to social media but been intentional in how you use it is the key in my opinion.

Having a hobby

I used to play hockey but since having my daughter I didn’t really have anything that I did for me. This was one of the main reason for me starting this blog, this is something that really interests me and is something that I can lose myself in for a few hours a week. Most of my life is taken up by work and looking after my daughter and the house so it is good to have this time to focus on me and my interests. I see this as a bit of self care which is really important.

Talking about it & Self Care

I found that when I opened up and told the people close to me how I felt it sort of lifted a weight of my shoulders. So keep talking. It makes a big difference or at least it did for me. The other thing to really think about is self care, take some time for yourself this could be just taking a bath or going for a walk, taking the time out to do something that is just for you. Life can overtake you and you forget that you need to take care of yourself to make sure that you are present for you and your family. I personally like to take a bath, blog and also exercise (loosely). I know its hard to find time but even it is 30min a dat it really is something that you should do.

I can’t say that I do all of these religiously apart from walking Derek, but I do use all of them and will do more of say meditation when I feel that things are starting to build up again. I hope that you find this post useful and if you don’t already maybe try some of the above to keep yourself physically and mentally well.

If anyone has another tips please drop me a comment as I would love to hear and try other techniques to help keeping my mental health in check.